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May 5, 2016 Day 7 Today was another great day, only mild wind today in Kansas and high 70s and sunny all day. Western Kansas is even flatter than the eastern half and somehow even more beautiful to ride through. The ride was made even better by the fact that I only had to cover a little over 250 miles from the Wakeeney KOA to Colorado Springs. I crossed the Colorado border sometime in the early afternoon. I took my sweet time on the ride and still got in before my friends were out of work, so I decided to check out the Garden of the Gods. The approach to Colorado Springs on hwy 24 is absolutely stunning country side and the mountains are just beyond my words. I walked around there for a while it's very beautiful but very touristy. It felt great to just be cruising around a new place seeing the local sites instead of blasting past everything trying to reach a destination. I left the garden and headed to my buddies house. we ate drank and had a lot of good laughs. It was really great to hang out with guys I haven't seen basically since highschool. Tomorrow I think I'm going to head for Great Sand Dunes NP and try to get a camp site there. Hopefully it's not to crowded tomorrow is going to be a beautiful Friday to go camping.

Hey everyone I'm Erick, I'm 25 and live in Northern New Jersey. Right now I'm smack dab in the middle of the greatest adventure Ive ever been on. But first let's rewind a bit. Consciously or not I've been building up to this trip for a very long time. Sometime around 2013-14 I watched long way round on Netflix and ever since then the gears inside my head have been turning. At the time I had no bike, no friends with bikes, and almost no street riding experience besides riding 2smokes on back roads in upstate NY. Truthfully I had very little practical knowledge about motorcycles, so I turned to the Internet! I found out I could take a class locally for $299 and leave a licensed motorcyclist, for which I immediately reserved a spot on the roster and had a great time doing it. Even though I could already ride a bike since I've owned quads and dirt bikes the class was still absolutely worth the investment because of the experience level of the instructors (both were motorcycle police instructors). Some of what I've learned there has already saved my life. I realized that I absolutely could not at the time afford the venerable R1200GSA as my first set of wheels and that a smaller more manageable bike may be better anyway, so I set to figuring out what bike was realistic for me. As it turned out the 2014 F700GS at my local dealer was the one. She fit right, she was priced right at the top of what I could afford and she rides like a champ. I picked her up on April 28, 2015. (I left on this journey exactly 1 year and 1 day after picking up my first and currently only bike) Put down 12 k miles and Farkled her out over the next year and here we are. Literally living a dream I once had after watching long way round for the 87th time and thinking I could never do an adventure like that. So having no experience, or bike, or living in an over populated area like NJ, or not having anyone to go is not an excuse. If you want it bad enough you can make it happen for yourself any way you can on any bike that you love with whatever gear works for you. To be honest I had never been so nervous in my life as the day before I left for the trip. Though I spent a week riding solo from my home to PEI Canada in late September and that was a great little 2k mile shakedown but this trip is over 4 times longer in duration and covers much harsher terrain and climates. Needless to say there was a lot of pre trip anxiety about what to bring, how to pack and what sort of things could go wrong. I had originally planned to leave on May 1st but some good Harley riding friends wanted to go camping together before I set out. Days 1-2 April 29th was the day I left home and me and 4 friends camped for 2 nights in the Delaware Water Gap forest. Going there my gps failed me and took us to a totally wrong destination in pouring rain at 10 o'clock we finally got to the site no thanks to me or my GPS. The whole time I was racked with nervousness about the trip especially because an enormous storm was headed across the Midwest, basically crushing my entire path with 30s-50s and hard rain which would continue to plague me each day into the 5th morning of the journey, significantly slowing my progress. Having my friends there with me on day 1 and 2 was awesome it helped me get over the anxiety of the trip and transition into it. So far the trip has gone something like this: May 1 day 3 My first solo day was a total bust. I broke down my campsite in the Delaware Water Gap under pouring freezing rain, said goodbye to my friends and set out working my way southwest hoping to get into Ohio. Within 100 miles my Klim suit, my schuberth c3pro, my Irish setter boots and Mechanix gloves (both probably not the best choices of equipment) were completely soaked through. It was 37 deg F and when I realized my hands could barely operate the clutch and brake lever and visibility was down to probably 10-20% makes for a dangerous mix I decided to get off the road and dry out. I pulled into a gas station/subway restaurant where I met 3 members and a prospect of a widely known and rather infamous MC who were making their way back to Ohio. Turned out they were really friendly guys and told me about the motel 6 down the road they stayed at the night before and recommended I try there first for a room. I got 2 subs and gassed up then took a quick shiver down the road to the motel 6. The guy who owned it was an incredibly nice man he gave me a double room for 40$ and offered to comp me a free night the next day if I decided to wait out the storm. He said he would never turn a motorcyclist away in a rain storm even if they had to camp out in the lobby. He even had me park the bike under the entrance awning and placed cones there to keep cars away from the Furiosa (my bike is named Furiosa) . Once I got into my room I realized it was only 10 am and I had time to clean and dry all my gear before heading out the next day. I washed all the gear in the tub and hung it all around the room and cranked up the heat. Worked like a charm. May 2 day 4 Much better day today only on and off rain and 55 up to 70 degrees at one point. I met a fellow adventure rider I'll call him Nicolas for anonymity sake. Nicolas has been an adventure rider for 25 years and him and brother both owned 1150gs and he currently has a ktm 950. Not too shabby at all! We talked for 20 or so minutes at a rest area about places he had been that I will be going to. About an hour after talking to Nicolas I realized I had been riding through the rain smiling and thinking about nothing at all just singing along with the music inside my helmet. Absolutely care free for probably the first time since I was old enough to understand English. Potholes and gas was all I had on my mind. I managed to sprain my ankle pretty seriously today by almost dumping the bike like an idiot and planting my left foot then running it over with the touratech pannier. Despite that little incident today was a great day. I've made camp for the night at buckeye lake KOA(37$) the entire tent section is deserted and I've got it all to myself. May 3 day 5 KOA's are awesome I woke up In a drizzle got a hot shower the use of an immaculate bathroom. I start out the day under lite mist at 8 sharp headed west for NE St Louis KOA. The ride was pretty uneventful some sporadic rain this morning but it passed by afternoon and was in the mid 60s and cloudy most of the ride. I met a lot of nice people interested in my bike because if all its luggage and they would ask where am I coming from, where am I going and how many cc the motor is. The friendliness and kindness people show to a person traveling by motorcycle is incredible! I guess because they perceive it as a more dangerous and more difficult task than it really is and because adventure bikes are rather rare in comparison to other categories. Whatever the reason may be; I have yet to meet one single unkind or rude person in 5 days. Remarkable. Tonight I'm making camp at the St Louis KOA as planned and it's a pretty sweet spot to pitch a tent. Water electric and wifi for 27 bucks all under a nice aluminum awning with a BBQ and a picnic table beside it. Can't really beat that. Tomorrow should be a big day into Kansas. Thanks for reading I will try to make nightly updates from here on! Instagram- @erickbhunter SPOT Tracker

Been to Garden on the Gods. It really is amazing. It you have time, ride up the canyon and tour cave of the winds. I think it's worthwhile personally. http://caveofthewinds.com/ Man, I miss living in Colorado!

Great journey so far. I also picked up a ADV bike after watching LWR. I now look forward to reading your daily reports and watching for pictures on Instagram. Following you from Calgary Alberta Canada.

At least where Iive, seems like the #1 situation that hurts or kills riders is someone turning in their path with too little room. Now, I know that some riders are simply riding too fast, but just last weekend someone pulled right out in front of me (saw it coming), I was not riding fast, and visibility was perfect. A buddy of mine rides a cruiser in Vegas (stupid crazy drivers there) and he swears that since installing a headlight modulator, the # of times people have pulled out into his path with too little room has dropped to zero. Impressive for sure! Anyone running a headlight modulator? If so, what brand? Thoughts/experiences? I really like the idea, I just want to get the best set-up that is plug/play and waterproof. My buddy is running one from Kriss Products.

Great stories... Keep em' coming. Making my week better until I can ride this weekend. Love the stories of kindness and hospitality of others. Sure beats all the doom/gloom news out there!

May 4 2016 Day 6 So as it happened the KOA that I stayed at last night just east of St. Louis was located literally next to a train track that was hidden by a hedgerow; and last night I was woken up at 330 am the longest and loudest train I've ever heard rolled past my campsite for what felt like half an hour. At first I had no idea what that tremendous noise was and it scared the hell out of me for a second. I could have sworn the RVs in the parking lot had launched a late night crash up derby by the sound of it. It was a good camp site and cheep but count on being woken up by a train So then it rained a little and the train made another appearance just before sunrise. I broke camp and was on the road by 8 and the sky's were clear. I did 550+ miles from just east of St Louis to the Wakeeney KOA about 2/3 of the way through Kansas. I had expected Kansas to be a gruelingly boring but it actually was incredibly beautiful and it made a long day in the saddle tolerable. The entire time I wanted to stop and photograph everything but whenever I did I was loosing too much time and the pictures just can't do any justice to the absolutely mind boggling expanses. I rode slack jawed for most of the day just marveling at the endless ocean of grassy plains. I met a lot of nice people today. The first interesting character was from Topeka Kansas and he walked up to me at a rest stop on i70 and said in a thick European accent "hello! I love BMW! I ride 1100GS!!" His name was Roland and We talked for atleast a half hour, he told me that he worked in the factory his 1100 was manufactured in and I just thought that was pretty cool. A couple hours later I was fueling up and a guy came out of the store and complimented my bike and gave me 4 fat bags of honey roasted peanuts out of nowhere! We talked for a few minutes and honestly I forgot his name already but I thought that was really nice of him. I got to this Wakeeney KOA around 645 and paid for a site then road across the street to pick up some dinner at a subway. I ordered while I was waiting I saw this tough lookin badass trucker man covered in really wild tats tattoos with a beastly beard. He asked about the bike and had seen my plate and asked how the ride from jersey had gone. Being to lone travlers we are together at the subway and Turned out his name was Joseph he was from Edison NJ and moved out west 14 years ago. He has a 70s (forgot what year exactly wish I asked him to send me a pic) triumph that he's modified for desert racing! He showed me a ton of pics on his phone and it's defiantly a cool project bike to have. Literally 10 minutes later I was back to the KOA from the subway and was setting up this campsite When an incredibly nice older lady came out of a huge spaceship full bus motor home and introduced herself as Martha and brought me a big plate of fresh homemade chicken and rice complete with fork knife and napkin. Our encounter was very brief but said I reminded her of her brother who had been a motorcycle enthusiast. I thanked her profusely for the delicious pile of chicken and rice and she wished me a safe journey. And to think one of the things I had the most anxiety over was being alone an having friends or family to talk to. I've never in my life found it so easy to meet people as when my bike is strapped up with all my camping junk. Tomorrow morning I've got 250+ miles to Colorado Springs where I'll meet up with some friends from high school who I haven't seen in too long. Sleep ride repeat! Thanks for reading!

This seems like it's shaping up to be quite a great movie about adventure riding on big bikes! I'm hosting a screening in Irvine on May 19th but you can check here for screenings near you. If you can't make it on this night then you can find the movie later at some point on Hulu, Netflix, etc... And while I set up the screening here in Irvine, I'll actually be watching it from Overland Expo at Mormon Lake, AZ